Manaforge Omega Race to World First day 2: We’re just getting started

With Manaforge Omega now live, the Race to World First is on as the world’s top guilds fight for fame and bragging rights. But the first few days of the race aren’t much of a race as guilds work on gearing up before heading to Mythic. That means it’s day 2 and we haven’t seen a single Mythic kill, and the big guilds have done nothing but splits.

The fact that we haven’t seen anyone kill the first Mythic boss yet is a bit of a surprise. While the top three typically take plenty of time gearing before starting Mythic, usually smaller guilds jump in early and snag world first kills on the first few boss before the top three guilds jump in, but so far no one has taken down Plexus Sentinel. A few guilds have given the first boss a go, and Melee Mechanics has the best pull so far at 62%. That certainly speaks to how tough this first encounter is: everyone who’s given Plexus Sentinel a try has turned around and headed to lower difficulties to gear up first.

That means most of the action so far has been on Heroic, in which BIGFLY snagged the world first Dimensius kill, blue shoe world second, and Hero pub world third. Blue shoe and Hero pub are both interesting entries into the race, even at heroic levels: these guilds are Chinese players with characters on North American realms scoping out the fights in preparation for their own weekly reset. These guilds are a full 24 hours behind the rest of the raiders, and they’re taking every edge to be ready when their mains can head in to Manaforge Omega. China has yet to break into the top 3 on World First races, but these guilds have been fighting hard for a top spot… and NetEase is offering a sizable cash prize for any Chinese guild that gets World First (or a smaller cash prize for getting in the top 3). For every raid tier no one claims the prize, the bounty goes up: it’s presently ¥1,400,000 (about $195,000 USD) for first or ¥500,000 (about $70,000 USD) for breaking into the top 3. Chinese servers are now online, so these guilds can start to progress in earnest.

For anyone watching the race, be prepared for several days of splits as raiders try to pick up powerful tier sets, best in slot trinkets, and boots from Soul Hunters which boost the power of players’ Reshii Wraps. Soul Hunters is technically an optional encounter, but this council fight drops boots of each armor type, all with the same powerful buff — and with world first guilds taking every advantage they can, they’ll want everyone geared up with a pair of boots. Taken all together, that means we should all settle in for a lot of splits.

You can watch raider.io for up-to-the-minute coverage of the race, but I’ll be back tomorrow with another daily update — even if that update only talks about more splits. See you then!

Catch up on our Race to World First coverage:

• Our guide to Manaforge Omega raid guides will give you a better idea of how these fights work
• Where to watch the top Race to World First guilds